St. Norbert turned away from a self-serving life through a dramatic conversion experience, and went on to become a great reformer of the Church.

He was born in Germany in 1080 to royal parents. As a young man, he sought priesthood as an ambitious career move, and began preparations for ordination, even though he was only interested in a life of pleasures.

He was out riding one day when he was caught in a thunderstorm and tossed by his horse. He lay on the ground paralyzed for an hour. His first words when he awoke were the same as St. Paul’s after his famous conversion: “Lord, what will you have me do?” A voice answered, “Turn from evil and do good: seek after peace and pursue it.”

Immediately he changed his life. He returned to the court and gave his life to prayer and fasting. He finished his preparation for the priesthood and was ordained. He took on the life of a wandering preacher, encouraging conversion in the court where he lived, but the people there thought him hypocritical. In return, he sold all of his land and goods, keeping only a small bit of money, a mule (which soon died), and the things he needed to celebrate Mass.

He met with the pope, who gave him permission to preach wherever he chose. He set out on a mission to preach, and started to gather around him others who were impressed by his conversion and commitment to the faith.

Church leaders drew on his leadership to reform monastic communities that had grown lax in their observance. Norbert, himself, started a community in an abandoned monastery, and their numbers grew such that other monasteries were established.

While visiting a town in Germany, Norbert was chosen as bishop of that town by popular acclaim from the community’s leaders, but as he approached his new rectory, the doorman turned him away, thinking he was a beggar because he was dressed so humbly. As bishop, he asserted a reform of the Church, which was met with resistance, but Norbert persisted.

Late in his life, he was drawn into a crisis in which disputed popes claimed to have been elected, and his influence was a great help in resolving the matter. All of his work had exhausted him, however—he had only been ordained 20 years when he died on this date at the age of 53.

Along with St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Norbert stands as a great reforming saint of the time whose influence led people to holiness for generations. St. Norbert’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and his image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.

St. Norbert, your dramatic conversion experience helped you lead the Church to greater faithfulness—pray for us!